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IC^lani 



An Historical Sketch 



By 
JOSEPH LITTELL 



.LSBLI 



Copyright, February, 1920 
JOSEPH LITTELL 



|v)AH 'c> 1920 



Indianapolis Printing Company 



CU567230 



CONTENTS 

DEDICATION 3 

PERSPECTIVE 7 

EVOLUTION 13 

A DEAD LANGUAGE "... 17 

TRADITIONS 23 

ENVIRONMENT 33 

ANTOINE MANSEAU ^^ 

FIRESIDE TALES 43 

DECLINE OF LELAND 49 

LELAND REDISCOVERED 51 



/ have nibbed a quill from a sea-gull's wing 
To catch the stories which the wild waves sing 
'Mong the waving pines on the Leland shore 
Of an inland sea — 



DEDICATION 



WITH most delightful recollections of 
those early days as a resorter, — 
when there were but few of us and 
those few became sttch friends, so informal 
as to times and places of meeting, so care- 
less as to dress and so unreserved in man- 
ner — for there were no strangers; when 
there were no trails and almost no roads in 
the woods and we were sometimes lost — and 
that was such a delightful experience to 
tell about; when we announced our ap- 
proach to camp or cottage with a "Whoop" 
or a "Hoo-hoo"!; when the children, who 
outnumbered the adults two to one, ended 
the day's glad liberty in woods and water 
by piling drift-wood and brush on the shore 
of the big lake for a beach fire, and when 
the sun had gone down behind Great Mani- 
tou and the shadows of evening had gath- 
ered in the forest and upon the water the 
flaming flags and towering torch of sparks 
signaled everybody to meet there with pop- 
corn and marshmallows to pop and roast as 
we gossiped, sang songs and lied and 
laughed while we sat around the fire on 
drift logs or lay upon the sand, — and the 
wavelets lapped the shore quietly so as not 
to disturb us, — till the air from the lake 
grew chilly and we climbed the bank and 



Ten 



finished the evening beside the fireplace of 
somebody's camp or cottage, — and the Ma- 
ros just dropped in, they had seen the signal 
— and the logs and pine brush in the fire- 
place crackled and sparkled throwing fitful 
lights and shadows upon faces set in the 
wide circle of shadowy background, while 
we sang more songs and told more stories 
and the smoke went up the chimney just the 
same, until — nobody knew what time and 
we didn't much care — but, until the 'old 
folks' decided that it was bedtime for the 
'young folks' — and we never knew where 
the next beach fire would be, but we'd be 
there, — then all would scatter off to find 
their camps and snuggle down to sleep and 
rest in the perfume of the pines; — with 
such pictures as these and the faces that fill 
them — most of them look older now, but 
some of them are only memories which do 
not change — this sketch is written and af- 
fectionately dedicated to the good old fash- 
ioned happiness of those early days at Le- 
land. 

JOSEPH LITTELL. 

Indianapolis, Feb. 14, 1920. 



PERSPECTIVE 



THE history of Leland lies in the mist 
and shadows of legend and tradition 
until well within the last three-quar- 
ters of a century. The pecuharly isolated 
position of Lelaneau County, Michigan, 
and especially that part of it lying west of 
Lake Lelaneau accounts for this fact as it 
was practically unknown until long after 
trading posts and settlements had been es- 
tablished on the west shore of Traverse 
Bay. Northport, Omena, Buttons Bay, and 
Traverse City were well known centers of 
trade to writers of the history of the Grand 
Traverse Region, Northern Michigan and 
the lower peninsula prior to 1880. But the 
Leland district was practically unknov/n to 
them because, being out of the way of com- 
mercial development it did not enter into 
any account to be rendered of human af- 
fairs. Not until the incoming settlers had 
discovered and were utilizing the great lum- 
ber forests on the shores of Traverse Bay, 
where water transportation and harbors 
were protected from the storms which 
made the shore of Lake Michigan unsuit- 
able for their business, did they seek out 
other fields of labor— or forests rather— 
and extend their enterprise into every cor- 
ner of that part of Michigan. 



Tzvclve 

That part of what is now Lelaneau 
County lying between Lake Michigan and 
the present Lake Lelaneau was most inac- 
cessible, and practically unknown to white 
men as late as 1850. It's secluded position 
made it a natural Indian reservation. There 
were three small lakes, connected by shal- 
low streams flowing northeastward and 
from the most northern lake a stream, not 
so large in volume as Boardman River at 
Traverse City, was the outlet of this lake — 
and therefore of all three to Lake Michigan. 
The land down to the water's edge of these 
lakes and streams was one dense forest of 
almost every variety of the pine; White 
Pine, Hemlock, Norway or Yellow Pine, 
Fir, Cedar and Arbor Vita, with Maple — 
often in large numbers in certain locations, 
Birch and Poplar scattered through the for- 
est. Game of many kinds was plentiful, 
except the larger game, deer, elk and moose, 
which were found further south because 
they had to come south in their winter 
migration east of Traverse Bay. But there 
Vv^ere fur bearing animals, wolf, fox, mink, 
otter, skunk and black bear, while ducks, 
geese, turkey and wild pigeons were in 
abundance in season. 

And now we come upon the crowning 
fact of all this — the abundance and avail- 
ability and constant supply of fish. This is 



Thirteen 



the chief fact— the picture in the frame— 
which, surrounded as it was by the natural 
seclusion of the location, the unbroken for- 
ests with their ideal hunting grounds, and 
the landlocked little lakes with the inex- 
haustible supply of fish right at hand ac- 
counts for the thrillingly interesting his- 
tory of the aborigines at Leland, most of 
which however, as has been said, lies in the 
misty realm of tradition or has faded from 
view in the unrecorded past. 

^ The particular spot now occupied by the 
village of Leland and its immediate vicinity 
has been the home of the Indian from time 
immemorial. Roam where they would on 
their hunting expeditions they could return 
to the seclusion of their almost inaccessible 
camp grounds where their supply of daily 
fish— if not daily bread— never failed. This 
fact is so important as to demand that we 
dwell upon it and examine it more in detail. 

The river which formed the outlet to the 
northern lake— and therefore to all three- 
is perhaps eight hundred yards long. It 
was a stream ten to fifteen feet wide and six 
to eight inches deep, and had a fall of about 
fifteen feet from its source to its mouth at 
Lake Michigan. Its waters were rapid in 
flow but with no precipitous falls. It was 
densely bordered with forest and overhung 
by swamp Cedars and Arbor Vita, with 



Fourteen 

many a fallen tree-top or trunk breaking 
the rapid current of its waters or forming 
natural bridges across the stream and cast- 
ing deeper shadows into the water where 
lurked the speckled trout and bass — those 
game fish of fresh waters. This little river, 
with its open mouth in Lake Michigan and 
leading up to the little lakes, was one of the 
greatest, if not the greatest natural fish lad- 
der on the shore of the Great Lakes. It was 
the open door for all kinds of fish which 
inhabit Lake Michigan with a short and 
easy passage for all kinds of fish, such as 
trout, bass and others which seek fresh 
spring waters in quiet shoals for their 
spawning ground where the gravel is not 
washed hither and yon by the storms which 
toss the sands of the Great Lakes. 

So great was the travel of this highway 
of the finny tribe that fish could be taken at 
any season of the year by a spear from the 
shore — even in winter, for the rapid run- 
ning waters did not freeze over, and so 
great was the inrush of fish from Lake 
Michigan to the little lake in the Spring- 
time, when the warmth of the sun called 
them to the spawning grounds, that they 
filled the waters of the little river from 
shore to shore and as they struggled up that 
fish ladder many were crowded out upon 
the shore all along the stream where they 



Fifteen 

died, — and stank. And so when the first 
white men came to Leland they found that 
the river had a name. From the distant 
past, the Indians had called that stream 
"Chi-mak-a-ping," which means a bad odor, 
a stink. We have no account that the white 
men ever attempted to give it any other 
name. 

By a natural process, however, it did ac- 
quire another name. When the first dam 
was built near the mouth of the river an ef- 
fectual barrier was erected gainst the fish 
seeking access to the little lake, so that they 
no longer crowded each other out upon the 
shore to die and stink. 

And just then another thing took place — 
the fish known as "carp" crowded up the 
river from Lake Michigan to the dam in 
great numbers. Some of the early white 
settlers relate that anyone could, and any- 
one who wished to do so did, go to the 
water's edge below the dam and with a 
spear or fork toss out upon the shore as 
many carp as he wished. And so the little 
river lost its ancient Indian name "Chi- 
mak-a-ping" and acquired the white man's 
title of "Carp" River; and, because the little 
lake had no other name, by association, it 
became "Carp Lake," — a name to which 
neither of them are justly entitled, for the 
oldest white settlers unanimously assert 



Sixteen 

that they have never known carp fish to be 
taken in the river above the dam or in Lake 
Lelaneau. 

The name "Chi-mak-a-ping" is now a tra- 
dition, and "Carp Lake" and "Carp River" 
are fading into the past to be preserved 
only in the early white man's geography. 
Names are of great historic value when at- 
tached to geographical locations and nat- 
ural things. In demonstration of this fact 
another very important event must be con- 
sidered here. 

There appears to be no historic evidence, 
or even a tradition, that the lake now 
known as Lelaneau ever had a name back 
in Indian times. We have not been able to 
find a tradition that it was ever called by 
the Indians "Chi-mak-a-ping." The lake 
did not' stink, — only the river was entitled 
to that name, and that only until the build- 
ing of the first dam. But from an indefinite 
time, probably about the time Manseau 
came to Leland, the lake began to be called 
"Lelaneau." There is a very remarkable 
reason for this name, which gathers into 
itself much of the early history, and — ^we 
may almost say — romance of this locality. 



EVOLUTION 



THE early vessels which navigated the 
water of the great lakes were sailing 
ships. Indeed the sailing vessels 
maintained their supremacy as against 
steamers in the commerce of these inland 
seas until well toward the close of the nine- 
teenth century. They were peculiarly ad- 
apted to the lumber carrying trade. As they 
plied between the southern ports of Lake 
Michigan and the ports of Traverse Bay or 
the strait of Mackinaw it was necessary for 
them to sail not far from the land after they 
passed between Sleeping Bear Point and 
Little Manitou. They must beware of the 
shore in that district of strong and frequent 
and at times very sudden storms of north- 
west wind. They were safe enough where 
they had plenty of sea room to tack and 
change their course until the wind abated; 
but there was scant sea room between the 
Manitous, Beaver and Fox Island to wind- 
ward and the mainland to leward for such 
a task in a storm. They had to look out for 
that "Lee Land," and many a shipwreck up- 
on that Lee Land shore attested the danger 
they incurred. That "Lee Land" became a 
mighty fact in the thoughts and plans of 
sailors and ship and cargo owners. The Lee 
land was well known to them before 1850. 



Eighteen 

They called it by its proper English, "Lee- 
land" as they were English men, and Ameri- 
cans, French, Swedes, Danes, and other sail- 
ors adopted it. "Lee, — the quarter toward 
which the wind blows'' — hence Leeland. 

Just a short distance within the shore of 
that land so well known as Leeland there 
lay a three linked chain of small lakes. They 
were not connected with any bay or other 
body of water except by that outlet, Chi- 
mak-a-ping, which was right in the midst of 
that Leeland shore so well known and guar- 
ded against. Those lakes were thus peculi- 
arly inclosed in the Leeland. The first white 
men who had knowledge of that locality 
from the Indians or by exploration were 
Frenchmen and when they spoke of the 
little lakes they spoke of them as the Lee- 
land waters, adding to the "Leeland'' their 
word "Eau," — Leelandeau. Thus they dis- 
tinguished the Michigan Lac from the body 
of waters which was held in the embrace of 
the Leeland. That name Leelandeau by the 
laws of orthography in the English lan- 
guage became Lelaneau just as it had 
grown out of natural and human condi- 
tions, the process and result of evolution. 
The birth and development of that word Le- 
laneau — not Leelanaw — is one of the most 
unique and beautiful romances in the his- 
tory of names. And it is most fittingly ap- 



Nineteen 

plied to that rarely beautiful body of vv^ater 
whose volume is wholly supplied by springs 
of pure water, small brooks and streams 
whose fountain heads are hid among the 
pines back in the hills a short distance from 
the shore. 

The facts which accumulate around this 
gathering of the waters embraced by the 
Lee land; the stories which they suggest 
but which never will be told point to the 
great value of Lelaneau to the prehistoric 
peoples, whose wigwams and teepes nestled 
within the pines along the shore, whose 
bark canoes shot back and forth across its 
waters, who lived and loved and died be- 
side those little lakes which bred and fed 
and supplied in such abundance nature's 
pure food for nature's children. 

And so we find Lelaneau and Chi-mak-a- 
ping the seat of a Tribal home, and that 
their chief camp was on the shore of the lit- 
tle river where the Chief of the tribe called 
together the braves in tribal counsel for 
years unnumbered under the wide spread- 
ing branches of the Counsel Tree. And that 
tree was to them the sacred alter of their 
tribal union. That Counsel Tree still stands, 
about one hundred feet south of the Leland 
dam, a massive old oak now dying at the 
top. Those who honored it, whose voices it 
heard in counsel are gone; another race of 



Tiventy 

men has come who do not know it — do not 
honor it. Children play beneath the shade 
of its wide spreading branches and dig for 
arrow heads — and find them there. What 
stories it could tell! But now forsaken by 
its companions, and neglected by passers- 
by — perhaps it is lonesome — it is time for it 
to die. 

When we consider the factors which make 
up the situation and character of the vicin- 
ity of Leland, so perfectly adapted to the 
simple life of the Indians, we cannot won- 
der that they loved it all, clustered about 
it, clung to it, and fought for it, filled tra- 
dition with the stories of their battles and 
mark their battle grounds with their 
graves. 



A DEAD LANGUAGE 

IT cannot be doubted that for many gen- 
erations the region of Leland was the 
home of the Indians. Tradition with 
one voice affirms it. The Indian relics and 
flint arrowheads and stone battle axes 
found there point back even beyond tradi- 
tion to a race of whom we have no tradition 
— nothing but the signs of their having been 
there. Copper instruments of war and do- 
mestic use, which belong to a period earlier 
than that at which they came in contact 
with the white race, have been found in and 
near the village of Leland. Could these be 
collected, as should be done, they would con- 
stitute a museum worthy of careful study 
by any one who is interested in the prehis- 
toric dwellers there. These things are more 
than curiosities. They are the dead lan- 
guage of a branch of the human family who 
lived according to the light of nature and 
by its necessities and have left no other 
records. 

There was a race who preceded the In- 
dians in Michigan and of whom they have 
given no account. But of the existence of the 
Mound-Builders there is abundant evidence 
at Manistee and Traverse City where their 
relics have been found. Much research has 
been made which has established certain 



Twenty-two 



distinguishing characteristics and which 
mark them all along their route from Brit- 
ish Columbia and Canada south across 
America, Mexico and Central America. 
They worshipped the sun and offered 
human sacrifices, usually on high mounds. 
Their highest mounds were constructed at 
strategic points for signals by fire and 
smoke, and far vision. The exploration ot 
the Traverse City mounds, which were not 
large and one of which stood within the 
present city limits, revealed evidence of the 
mound builders and their human sacrifice. 
It is probable that one of the most in- 
teresting monuments of that pre historic 
race in the United States stands m the 
village of Leland. With all the silent dig- 
nity of the Egyptian's Sphynx it challenges 
the attention of very one approaching Le- 
land from any direction, but gives no an- 
swer—not even the echo of a tradition— to 
the questions it forces upon the mind of the 
thoughtful observer. It is known as Round 
Top, so called by Mr. Luther Conant who 
bought it and built upon its summit his 
handsome summer home. 

There are several emphatic evidences m 
favor of Round Top as the work of the 
Mound Builders. Its location is of first irn- 
portance. The same reason which made 
Leland so desirable as a dwelling place for 



Twenty-three 



the Indians, the great lake for navigation, 
the convenient location on the main land 
for communication with the island; the 
near-by quiet inland waters; the abundant 
supply of fish and game for food and cloth- 
ing, were as potent reasons for its locations 
then as they were to the Indian in later 
years in his choice of a dwelling place. 

The Mound was always located at the 
center of camp life. This has been determ- 
ined by research in other parts of the 
United States, in Mexico and Central 
America. The value and fitness of Round 
Top as to size and location as a lookout in 
the center of camp life it is beyond ques- 
tion. It is visible at long distance on Lake 
Michigan, from all four of the islands, and 
from far south on Lelaneau, an ideal look- 
out for smoke signals by day and fire sig- 
nals by night. For the mound builders had 
their enemies and needed to watch and give 
their warnings of attack, and rally their 
forces for self defense. They built forts as 
well as mounds in Ohio and other places, 
and finally disappeared before a stronger 
race of men— doubtless the Indian. 

The size of Round Top is not against the 
theory that it is the work of the Mound 
Builders, while its distinctly conical shape 
is emphatically in its favor. It is doubtless 
one of the largest in the United States but 



Twenty-four 



not so large as some found in Mexico and 
Central America, which are known to be 
the work of men's hands. The pyramid of 
the Sun and Moon, about twenty-five 
miles east of Mexico City, are much larger 
than Round Top. The Builders of Round 
Top may have taken advantage of a sand 
dune as the base upon which to build, but no 
sand dune has been found approaching it 
in size or symetrical or conical shape. It 
cannot be the product of the winds, which, 
although they have made wonderful piles 
and banks of sand in Northern Michigan in 
that region of high northwest winds, do not 
preserve the forms of cones. Round Top 
stands upon a level base, is almost a perfect 
circle where it rests upon the base, except 
that part next to the lake — less than one- 
fourth of its circumference. Its sides rise 
from the level base as abruptly as though 
the sand had been poured upon the top and 
had run down to the angle of rest. This 
fact is emphatically in favor of its artificial 
construction. 

Some of the foregoing facts are applic- 
able to another mound known as Sugar 
Loaf about twelve miles south of Leland, 
located in the midst of a number of small 
lakes, which means a supply of food; for 
neither the Mound Builders nor the Indians 
were deep water fishermen. 



Twenty-five 

These mounds may have been begun as 
tombs for chiefs or altars for Sun worship, 
and later enlarged to their greater dimen- 
sions as the importance of their location de- 
manded. It is known that human sacrifice 
was a part of that worship, probably the 
sacrifice of captives. Evidence of this has 
been found in small mounds no further 
away than Traverse City and Manistee. 
And there stands Round Top, with all these 
marks of a prehistoric character; too great 
for us to build, too mysterious for us to un- 
derstand, looking out in dignified silence 
upon a race, who not being able to account 
for it, finds comfort in denying that it was 
ever built by men. 

Some of these doubts, however, are si- 
lenced in the mind of the writer, who a 
few years ago stood upon the top of the 
mound built by the Indian women of the 
Jalpitan tribe on the Isthmus of Tehuanti- 
pec, Mexico, in honor of the daughter of 
their chief who had been captured by Cor- 
tez and who became his wife and chief ad- 
viser in his dealings with the Mexican In- 
dians. It is named after her — the Mound 
of Malinchi. When built it was sixty feet 
high — though it is now much less — and 
about one hundred and twenty feet square 
at the base. History records that the wo- 
men of the tribes carried the earth with 



Twenty-Six 

which the mound was builded to the top of 
the mound in the garments which formed 
their skirts, working three years in its 
construction. 

These facts are strong evidences in favor 
of the theory that Leland probably pos- 
sesses the finest specimen of the work of 
the Mound Builders to be found in Michi- 
gan, if not in the United States, in what Mr. 
Luther Conant has named Round Top. It 
has stood there and watched generations 
come and go, and Captain Ver Snyder, the 
pilot of Lelaneau, now uses it as a land 
mark by day and beacon by night. 



TRADITIONS 



THERE were many traditions linger- 
ing in the memory of the old resi- 
dents in and about Leland in 1900, 
many of them vague and all of them in- 
definite as to time. But all of them were 
in perfect harmony with the combination 
of natural advantages to be found there 
and the life and events which left their 
marks there. 

Considerations already set forth furnish 
a most fitting background for the tradi- 
tions which filled the memory of the oldest 
white settlers but which are being lost as 
one by one they pass away. When we learn 
from the concurrent testimony of the earli- 
est written records of Northern Michigan 
that three distinct tribes and parts of three 
others contended for possession of the 
lower peninsula, and that the most highly 
prized hunting grounds were in the grand 
Traverse region, we are not surprised that 
the fiercest battles waged for their posses- 
sion occurred west of Traverse Bay, some 
of them in the immediate vicinity of Leland. 
Perhaps the bloodiest battle of all was 
fought at Sleeping Bear Point or rather 
at its base where the Ottov/as almost com- 
pletely annihilated the tribe of Prairie In- 
dians. The results of this battle in the 



Tzventy-Eigth 



form of skeletons and camp equipment 
were to be seen until the middle of the last 
century. 

It is not intended to set forth in order 
here even the known history of the move- 
ments of the various tribes who occupied 
the land in the vicinity of Chi-mak-a-ping at 
various times. Let him who would study 
this subject in detail consult the history of 
the "Grand Traverse Region," by Dr. M. L. 
Leech, 1883, published by the Grand Trav- 
erse Herald, Traverse City, Michigan. It is 
important, however, to know that the Chip- 
piwas, Hurons and Ottawas in turn, and 
probably in the order mentioned, occupied 
the Leland Region, and that as a result of a 
kind of peace league, the Indian inhabitants 
who are found there by white settlers and 
whose descendants received lands in sever- 
alty and remain about Omena and North- 
port to this day were a mixture of two or 
more of these tribes. Speaking of the Otta- 
was Dr. Leech says: "Their principal and 
most prominent settlements, were at Cross 
Village, Middle Village, Seven Mile Point 
and Little Traverse. " ""' ''' West of the Bay a 
small band had their home on the point af- 
terward known as the New Mission, and 
another on the shore of Lake Michigan at 
or near the present site of the village of Le- 
land." 



Twenty-nine 



While the Ottawas seems to have been 
the latest distinct tribe to occupy the west- 
ern side of Traverse Bay they were but a 
fragment of that tribe which migrated 
from the main home of the tribe on the Ot- 
tawa River in the east after Pontiac's war. 
They had first settled at Mackinac v/here 
they had been joined by the Huron tribe 
which had been defeated by the Iroquois 
and expelled from its native country on the 
south eastern part of Georgian Bay of Lake 
Huron. They also were joined by some Al- 
gonquins who had been doing something 
somewhere and were compelled to seek 
other hunting grounds. These all lived to- 
gether in apparent peace, but always with 
a keen eye open for a better location. Their 
hunters and warriors explored the shores 
of the bay on the east side, then crossed 
over to the west side landing at Northport; 
then in their excursions southwest they dis- 
covered the most desirable spot of all they 
had seen. It was the Chi-mak-a-ping and 
the little lakes with their adjacent forest. 
They found this part of the country in pos- 
session of the Chippawas who had settled 
long before, and immediately trouble be- 
gan. The intense hunger for the possession 
of ^ that location developed the old tribal 
spirit in each of the factions, and the va- 
rious groups set themselves to acquire pos- 



Thirty 

session of this spot in the only way known 
to uncivilized selfishness — just take it — 
drive off or kill the present possessors who 
had undoubtedly acquired their title in the 
same way. These movements and battles 
took place around Leland between 1750 and 
1820. 

The traditions of the conflicts which took 
place in those stirring years for possession 
of the Leland district still linger in the 
minds of the old generation of white set- 
tlers, but are fast fading and becoming in- 
distinct in the minds of their children. So 
dim and indefinite have they become that 
it seems impossible to obtain anything like 
names or dates. The location ,of some of 
the battles is still pointed out with the re- 
mark "A battle was fought here; many 
graves have been found here; we do not 
know v/ho fought, nor when, nor why.'' 

Tradition locates one of these battles on 
the shore of Joe Neddo's Bay near the pres- 
ent country club golf ground where scat- 
tered graves have been found. It was the 
custom of the Indians to bury their dead 
braves where they fell. Another and more 
deadly battle was fought on the hillside just 
north east of the village, and graves have 
been found scattered over that hillside and 
even on top of the hill. But they are more 
numerous near the foot of the hill by the 



TJiirty-one 

shore of Lake Michigan. However, this 
spot was used as an Indian burial ground 
until about 1880, which may account for the 
more numerous graves. About this time 
this land became private property prior to 
which it had been included in lumber grants 
but having passed into private ov/nership it 
was divided into small tracts for summer 
cottages. "While digging foundations and 
wells and other preparations for residences 
there many very interesting relics have 
been found. A portion of what appears to 
have been a crown of copper Vv^as found in 
one place, probably belonging to a buried 
chief. At another place near the grave of a 
supposed chief, a disc said to be of silver, 
much the shape of a saucer, was found. It 
was found upon the top of a skull. In an- 
other grave v/as found about a quart of 
beads, and in other places cooking utensils, 
axes, and other instruments were found, 
arrow-heads, pipes and parts of what must 
have been the warrior's armament. 

Tradition is very clear in the minds of the 
few remaining old settlers as to some 
things. Since the year 1900, they have re- 
lated what they heard in the early days of 
Leland, and also what some of them had 
seen. The shores of Lake Lelaneau, espec- 
ially that part of the lake north of the nar- 
rows at Provmont, were dotted with te- 



Tliirty-t-cvo 

pees and wigwams, singly and in more or 
less large groups. The tradt of land lying 
between the village of Leland and the pres- 
ent location of the Swiss Inn on Lelaneau, 
and southwest to the mountain which rises 
so abruptly, now known as the "Indiana 
Woods" was a "favorite Indian camping 
ground, and the shore of Lake Michigan 
from Leland to the mountain was lined with 
their wigwams and the beach covered with 
their canoes. There were many camps in 
cleared spots back in the woods, in fact the 
woods seemed full of them." This is related 
by Mrs. Bluhardt now living in Leland, who 
adds, that, when she was a little girl, she 
saw many Indian maidens gliding over the 
waters in their canoes along the Michigan 
shore south of the docks, and thinking she 
could do it too, she took a canoe, without 
the knowledge or consent of her parents, 
and paddled down quite a distance and back 
again; but just before she got to the dock, 
the canoe turned over and she would have 
been drowned but for the timely aid of some 
lumber men who were at the dock. She also 
relates that among the laborers employed 
in the handling of lumber, there were many 
Indians at that time; and at night, after the 
day's work was done, there was much drink- 
ing and brawling among the laborers 
around the company's store and the trad- 



Thirty-three 



ing post which stood south of Round Top, 
and very frequently someone was killed. It 
was not considered safe by the parents for 
children to go about these places at night. 

Another tradition, somewhat dim in de- 
tail but distinct in outline, and of course 
without date, and which gives the cause of 
one of the battles fought at Leland is of un- 
usual interest. It was related by Napoleon 
Paulus, one of the early settlers there, now 
deceased, and may be related as follows: 

A certain tribe, probably the Chippewas, 
occupied the forests about Leland living in 
peace and plenty. The old chief held his 
councils at the Council Tree. He had two 
children, a son and a daughter. The son was 
not a rugged warrior nor a great hunter, 
and therefore not very popular among the 
warriors. The daughter was a beautiful 
maiden, sought after by many of the young 
braves. One of them was accepted by her. 
He was a stalwart, manly, athletic young 
brave, a courageous and successful hunter, 
and a leader among the young men of the 
tribe. The wedding was celebrated in a 
manner befitting a daughter of the chief 
according to the Indian customs. Not a 
great while after this event, the old chief 
passed to the happy hunting grounds of the 
Great Spirit. It became necessary then to 
choose a new chief. 



Thirty-four 

Part of the tribe desired to have as their 
chief the son of the old chief, but the other 
part chose to confer that honor upon the 
husband of the daughter of the old chief 
who was more fitted as a warrior to be a 
chief and lead the tribe to battle when oc- 
casion demanded. Then, too, was he not the 
husband of the princess of the tribe? and 
was she not entitled to be the wife of the 
Chief of the tribe? The dispute became bit- 
ter and the two factions drew apart. The 
conservatives adhered to the son of the old 
chief as their choice, and to the old oak 
Council tree as their headquarters. The 
new faction, with their chief and his bride, 
withdrew across the river to the northeast, 
and chose as their council tree a cherry tree 
on the slope of the hill above Leland. This 
tree, still standing, was the headquarters of 
a flintmaker and is still a feature of that lo- 
cation. The strife became bitter and result- 
ed in an appeal to weapons, and a fierce civil 
war. A battle was fought, probably on that 
hillside, which resulted in the death of many 
warriors, and among them the chief of the 
conservatives — the son of the old chief. This 
may have been the battle previously men- 
tioned which strewed that hillside with 
graves, a few of which have been found in 
very recent years while making roads. 
Peace was then arranged between the two 



TJiirty-five 

factions, and the chief with the princess of 
the tribe, his wife, assumed the honors of 
the headship of the tribe undisputed, and 
the old oak council tree once more became 
the visible headquarters of the tribe. 

Here is a story in outline which awaits 
the pen of a Fenimore Cooper. Will he ar- 
rive to fill out the details of tribal, domestic, 
and political life and quarrels? Or must it 
pass into oblivion with the many now-for- 
gotten stories of important events in the 
history of Indian life at Leland? That won- 
derful combination of natural, attractive 
features which held the heart of the Indian 
so devoutly to that Lee Land and its waters, 
had its romances, its feasts of rejoicing, and 
its tragedies. But they were not recorded. 
They were only told and told again by the 
campfires. And they who told and they who 
heard and told again are gone; but the wind 
still sighs through the branches of the old 
Council trees which watch over their graves 
but will not tell. 



ENVIRONMENT 



BEFORE considering the settlement of 
Leland by white men, it is important 
that we take a general view of condi- 
tions in the lower peninsula in which the 
white settlements were closing in around 
Lelaneau County. 

In his centennial address, July 4, 1876, 
Judge Hatch gave a comprehensive state- 
ment of historic facts of great interest as 
to that territory, and which have been pre- 
served in a compilation made by A. H. 
Johnson and printed in Traverse City in 
1880, — a valuable publication and all too 
rare. Mr. Johnson says: "Other items in this 
sketch, we have gleaned from various 
sources, mostly from the participants them- 
selves." Then, quoting Judge Hatch — "The 
Grand Traverse region, embracing all the 
territory north of Manistee and bordering 
on Lake Michigan and Traverse Bay, had 
been, for many centuries prior to its set- 
tlement by the whites, inhabited by Indians. 
The deep and well worn trails leading in 
various directions through the country, the 
old clearings at Little Traverse, Wago- 
shense or Fox Point, Old Mission, Cat Head 
Point and other places, — the old scars on 
maple trees, deeply embedded in the wood 
and nearly grown over where they had 



Thirty-eight 

been tapped for sugar generations ago, — 
all these things observed by the earliest 
white settlers corroberated the statements 
of the oldest Indians that this country, both 
on account of the abundance of fish in the 
lakes and bay and of game in the forest had 
been from a very remote period a favorite 
resort of aborigines. According to the most 
reliable traditions, the Indians which still 
remain here acquired possession of the 
country about two hundred and fifty years 
ago." He tells of the visit of Reverend 
George N. Smith of Northport to the bat- 
tleground at Sleeping Bear where the Otta- 
was almost annihilated the tribe of Prairie 
Indians and where he found the abandoned 
camp equipment of the latter, such as ket- 
tles set on stones, which were almost cov- 
ered by the drifting sand. 

This compilation of Mr. Johnson is prob- 
ably the most important document bearing 
upon the Leland district which has been 
published, as it shows the closing in around 
it of the first white settlements. Up to 
1839 when Reverend George N. Smith, un- 
der the auspices of the Presbyterian Board 
of Missions, located a mission at Northport, 
there had been no white settlers in Lelan- 
eau County, if indeed he could be called a 
settler. On one of his explorations about 
1842, he visited the Indian village of Che- 



Thirty-nine 

mak-a-ping, but merely visited it. The bare 
mention of that fact in one of his letters is 
the first recorded account we have that a 
white man had ever set his foot in the dis- 
trict of Leland. Pierre Marquette is said 
to have sailed from Mackinac down the 
coast southward on Lake Michigan, but 
there is no record or tradition of his hav- 
ing stopper at Leland. This was the begin- 
ning of what developed into an important 
Indian trading post at Glen Arbor. 

Says Dr. M. L. Leach, "In 1847, John Le- 
rue came from Chicago to the Manitou Is- 
lands in search of health. At that time 
there were no white men in Lelaneau 
County. Finding the climate favorable to 
his health, Mr. Lerue commenced trading 
with the Indians. The next year, 1848, he 
moved over to the mainland, to what was 
then called Sleeping Bear Bay, but now 
Glen Arbor, thus becoming the first white 
settler in Leanleau County.'' 



ANTOINE MANSEAU 



PRIOR to 1850, there had been estab- 
lished white settlements along the 
southeast shore of Lake Michigan as 
far north as Manistee, — lumber camps. The 
industry of ship building became an impor- 
tant feature of the business at Manistee on 
account of the large supply of timber in 
that vicinity suitable for masts, spars and 
other parts of sailing ships which followed 
the coast trade — almost wholly lumber and 
camp supplies. The ship carpenters and lum- 
ber workmen were mostly Frenchmen from 
Quebec and east Canada ports. At Port- 
age, near Manistee, there lived and labored 
one of these Frenchmen who had sailed up 
the coast of the Lee Land around to Trav- 
erse Bay and Mackinac, and who had seen 
and probably heard something on his way 
concerning the Chi-mak-a-ping and its suit- 
ableness for a new lumber camp and mill. 
He determined to undertake an enterprise 
of his own, and accordingly set to work and 
constructed a small sailing boat suitable for 
his own purpose. In the spring of 1853, he 
launched his boat upon Lake Michigan, put 
on board his household effects, among which 
was a cooking stove and a chicken coop full 
of chickens. Then placing on board his wife 
and seven children, five of them being girls, 



Furty-tzvo 

and two or three of them young ladies, he 
set sail northward along the shore of the 
Lee Land for the spot which he had for 
some time in mind. It was after dark when 
he arrived at the place where he wished to 
land, and a stiff wind was blowing. But land 
he must and did — just a few rods north of 
the mouth of Chi-mak-a-ping, where he 
carried his family ashore, and then his 
household goods, and placed them among 
the dense growths of cedars and arbor vita 
on the bank, just a few rods south of where 
Mr. Woodbridge's cottage now stands. He 
built a tent of cedar boughs to shelter his 
family and set free his chickens to find their 
roost among the pines. That night the wind 
rose to a gale and rain fell in torrents. The 
next morning all the family were drenched 
and the cookstove was full of water. What 
became of the chickens, or how fared the 
boat in that storm upon that shore, tradi- 
tion does not report. The name of this man, 
the first white man who ever arrived and 
settled in Leland, was Antoine Manseau. 

The Indians were very friendly to the 
French in those early days, and they gave 
a kindly welcome to Manseau and his fam- 
ily. They came at once to his assistance and 
soon had constructed a comfortable house 
of hemlock bark for Manseau and his fam- 
ily; and thus established, the family soon 



Forty-three 

became contented citizens. How interest- 
ing would be the story of that first year of 
their life alone among the Indians at Leland 
could it have been written ! It was not until 
a year later that Manseau was joined by 
other white settlers and during that year 
came J. I. Miller, John Porter, S. Buckman, 
John Bryant and Fredrick Cook. These 
men joined with Manseau in the building of 
the first dam near the mouth of the Chi- 
mak-a-ping, which was destined to change 
the name of that stream. This dam was at 
or very near the site of the present dam. 
To get the required fall and tail race, he cut 
a ditch below the mill which washed the 
present channel below the dam where the 
water flows to the lake, thus changing the 
course of the stream at that point and mak- 
ing its entrance into the lake about one 
hundred yards south of its former exit, 
which was a little distance north of the 
dock afterwards erected there. At this 
dam Manseau built and operated the first 
sawmill in this region. 

Antoine Manseau and his family lived on 
most amicable terms with their dusky fel- 
low dwellers on Chi-mak-a-ping. His 
daughters grew into healthy and beautiful 
young ladies and his sons into stalwart 
young men. The young ladies felt secure in 
their frontier life and had no fear of the In- 



Forty-four 

dians who treated them with that friendly 
respect which reflected the spirit of honor, 
and which, with some other traits of char- 
acter possessed by them and displayed when 
treated kindly and fairly, entitled them to 
be called the "noble red men/' The only 
cause of fear which the Manseau family 
ever had was on account of the Mormons 
who had set up a kingdom on Beaver Island, 
under one James J. Strang who claimed to 
be the successor of Joseph Smith as head of 
the Mormon Church, and who had been 
crowned king of the Mormons on Beaver 
Island on the 8th of July, 1850. The chief 
doctrine of that so-called religious sect was 
the divine duty of every true disciple 
to annex as many wives as he could support 
The young ladies of the Manseau family 
were carefully guarded against any at- 
tempts which might be made by members 
of that sect who found no sympathy for 
their doctrine or methods of putting it into 
practice among the Indians. The young la- 
dies were safe under the protection of the 
Indians from raids, and were carefully 
guarded against abduction which had on 
occasion been practiced by the Mormons. 

These young ladies later becam.e the wives 
of young men who came to Leland and their 
names became Catherine Miller, Julie Dean, 
Emily Grant, Odelia Mosier and Philomena 



Forty-five 

Paulus — wife of Napoleon Paulus, both of 
whom spent their lives at Leland. Antoine, 
Jr., the eldest son died at Sutton's Bay, and 
the youngest son, Joseph Manseau still lives 
at Manistee. The daughter of Philomena 
and Napoleon Paulus, who were known to 
the early resorters, became the wife of Wil- 
liam Stander, at Leland, to whom the writer 
is indebted for most of the information con- 
cerning her grandfather. Antoine Manseau 
did not live to see the full development of 
the enterprise which he had begun but died 
in 1856. He was the first white man to be 
buried where the cemetery now is, up over 
the hill from Leland where his grave may 
be seen. It should be marked, and inscribed 
"THE PIONEER." 



J 



FIRESIDE TALES 



AMONG the very early settlers at Le- 
land was Alexander Mason, Sr., born 
in Scotland, a chief carpenter, who 
constructed a grist mill which was operated 
in connection with the sawmill which had 
been erected at the dam; for those first 
white men began at once to raise corn and 
later other grain, for food. They built a 
bridge across the river close to the site of 
the present one. .Alexander Mason, Sr., 
lived just south of the dam — the sand has 
blown over its foundation and that of some 
other houses there. One of his sons, Alex- 
ander Mason, Jr., now of Traverse City and 
his youngest brother are the only survivors 
of the Mason family. James Mason, de- 
ceased, spent his life and reared his family 
at Leland. The present scribe, here, wishes 
to acknowledge his indebtedness to James 
Mason, whose friendship he enjoyed from 
1901 until his death, for much information 
concerning the early times, and for the rem- 
nants of some traditions which were too in- 
definite to be recorded here, as we sat by a 
large blazing fireplace or on a log in the 
woods and whose stories of those early days 
awakened a keen interest in the history and 
traditions of that locality; of the lumber 
camps in and around Leland and the hunt- 



Forty-eight 

ing expeditions, the abundance of fish so 
easily taken; of the 'camps of Indians along 
the shores and especially the little villages 
of tepees back in the Indiana Woods in the 
cleared spots of ground where they were 
sheltered from the wind of Lake Michigan 
and in fact all along the shores of Lelaneau; 
and the experiences of that day when he 
carried his oldest son — about four years of 
age — on his back "all the way from Leland 
to Traverse City to a doctor — the little fel- 
low was tongue-tied," and that trip was 
made by paths and log roads through the 
woods; and with his ever present sense of 
humor he added, "I didn't take a gun, I had 
all the game I wanted to carry." He loved 
the simple, informal life of the old times 
and told their stories, of which he had a 
great store, with much pleasure, always see- 
ing the humorous side of things. But there 
was always a note of regret at the coming 
of the new state of things, which he clear- 
ly foresaw. 

One day while we were shooting at a 
mark, he said, "We didn't pay much atten- 
tion to dressing up or painting houses in 
those days, but I suppose we'll have to 
spruce up some now — owing to those damn 
resorters" — with that insuppressible smile 
of his. He may have referred to the resort- 
ers living near the dam. 



Forty-nine 

He aided in the construction of the first 
launch ever built in Leland. It was built in 
his shop on the bank of the river which now 
constitutes part of Mr. Stander's boat re- 
pair shop. This was the second launch on 
the lake and was christened at his sugges- 
tion the "Norman.'' He seemed greatly 
pleased and almost surprised when the boat 
started up the river and exclaimed, "She 
runs like a scared hound !" 

The cheerful spirit and willing helpful- 
ness of Jim Mason will abide in the memory 
of those early resorters. 

BetAveen 1860-70 there was great develop- 
ment in the lumber industry around Leland. 
A new dam was built — higher than the first 
dam — ^which raised the water level, not only 
of the river but also of the lakes at its 
source. This enabled the lumbermen to 
float rafts of logs to the mills along the 
shores of Chi-mak-a-ping. But a result ob- 
tained by raising the dam which was of 
even greater value was that the shallow 
streams connecting the southern lake with 
the middle lake and it with the northern 
lake, at what was called the Narrows at 
Provmont, were converted into waters deep 
enough for boats and lumber rafts. The 
three lakes became one body of water, and 
the docks already erected near the mouth of 
the river in Lake Michigan became available 



Fifty 



to mills south of Provmont. This greater 
facility for transportation greatly increased 
the lumber mills and the lumber business, 
until the banks of the river were lined with 
mills and lumber yards. The population of 
the village increased accordingly, being va- 
riously estimated at from 1500 to 2500 peo- 
ple. 

Alexander Mason, Jr., states that in 1865, 
the Huron Indians still occupied the Indi- 
ana Woods; that much firewood for lake 
steamers was rafted down the river and 
marketed at Leland; that hunting and fish- 
ing were excellent; deer were plentful and 
wild pigeons so numerous as to darken the 
sky when they rose for fight; that he had 
killed as many as sixteen at one shot, that 
one could kill them with a fishing pole; 
that wild ducks were abundant, and that he 
had killed as many as seven at one shot on 
Lelaneau. 

The iron furnaces were built on the shore 
of Lake Michigan, just north of the remains 
of the dock which are still to be seen north 
of the river, in 1872. Furnaces for making 
charcoal of hard wood for use in smelting 
iron ore were located on the right bank of 
the river a few rods east of the end of the 
present bridge in the village of Leland. Ore 
was brought from Escanaba, Michigan, to 



Fifty-one 

Leland where it was smelted by charcoal 
and the iron shipped to southern markets. 

Great activity in the cutting and sawing 
of lumber occupied the years from 1870-80. 
It was about the year 1875 that the land 
now commonly known as the Indiana 
Woods was cut. This land was heavily tim- 
bered, except the little cleared spots scat- 
tered through the forest which had been oc- 
cupied by Indian camps. One of the most 
beautiful camp sites in this forest and which 
was always occupied by a village of tepees 
was a level bench of land looking out upon 
Lake Lelaneau protected by the forest and 
the hills and said to have been a comfortable 
spot even in winter. Upon this spot F. C. 
Ball erected his first wigwam. It is now on 
the land of E. B. Ball. 

About this time occurred a tragedy of the 
forest the marks of which are still very vis- 
ible. A fierce cyclone from Lake Michigan 
struck the shore at or near Duck Lake, a 
half mile southwest of the present home of 
John Robinson, and swept a path through 
the forest eastward just south of Robin- 
son's Bay laying flat every tree of that 
great forest, making a path about one hun- 
dred yards wide. The holes and mounds 
made by the upturned roots of those trees 
still make the land almost impassible, even 
on foot. 



Fifty-tivo 

The lumbering industry extended south 
along the shores of both lakes: to Prov- 
mont, Cedar City and Bingham after the 
building of the second dam which raised the 
waters of Lelaneau; and to Good Harbor on 
Lake Michigan, which, next to Leland, be- 
came the largest lumber tport in Lelaneau 
county. This port, once so busy a lumber 
market, with acres of piled lumber, with its 
many inhabitants and dwellings, is now a 
deserted village, whose empty dwellings, 
large stores, saloon and hotel, with doors 
ajar, empty shelves, broken windows and 
the wrecks and foundations of other build- 
ings tell a silent story of a busy life which 
has passed and gone. No ships lie in the 
quiet harbor with sails furled awaiting 
their cargoes, or spread their white sails to 
bear their loads of lumber to the southern 
markets. The sea gulls find a quiet resting 
place upon the piles of the old dock, and 
sometimes into the brooding silence a few 
fishermen come and spread their nets upon 
the sands. 



DECLINE OF LELAND 



WITH the exhaustion of the timber in 
reach of water transportation, the 
lumber industry began to wane and 
die on Lelaneau and the river until about 
1900, when only the remnants of a few mills 
lay idle and abandoned beside their empty 
lumber yards, and the silence was broken 
only by the whistle of the incoming Tiger 
from Fouch, and the shrill whistle of John 
Peter's portable sawmill which lingered 
along the river to saw the last log at Le- 
land. The old black piles still stood above 
the lashing waves of Lake Michigan where 
once the docks had been, each well worn 
stump providing a perch for a sea gull. 
Many houses had wholly disappeared from 
the village with the vanishing population, 
and those that remained looked old and 
very paintless. There were but two stores, 
the*^ Cordes Brothers' and Pickards, with 
very scanty stocks of merchandise, — they 
mxade no deliveries. Julius Prousa had the 
germ of a livery stable which later— like 
the stores — grew and thrived, and may yet 
bloom into a garage. There was not a sa- 
loon in Leland to furnish artificial stimu- 
lant to the almost deserted village, or where 
the old inhabitants would meet to drink to 
the health of the new-born summer resort. 



Fifty- four 

A few fishermen, the Cooks, the Prices, and 
the Clauses, put out from the mouth of the 
river below the dam and its abandoned saw- 
mill to their fishing grounds in Lake Michi- 
gan in sailboats. There was not a power 
boat among the fishing fleet. And when the 
nets had yelded their haul and the boats had 
returned to the fish houses in the river, the 
campers could and did obtain a supply of 
fresh white fish and lake trout — at five 
cents a pound. 

But a new day was dawning on Leland. 
The ages-old lure of natural attraction in a 
quiet retreat was about to draw new devot- 
ees to do them honor where the old camp- 
fire had grown dim and almost gone out. 



LELAND REDISCOVERED 



ABOUT the year 1890, the lumber in- 
terests of Chicago, which had pro- 
jected a railway into the lumber re- 
gions northeast from Manestee, extended 
the road to Traverse City by way of Fouch, 
—named after a Frenchman whose lumber 
camp was located there. This was an outlet 
for lumber from the Traverse region to the 
shipping port of Manistee which shortened 
the shipping haul to the south and avoided 
the hazardous winds and shores of the Lee 
Land. Reports of the Great hunting and 
especially fine fishing grounds to be found 
in that lumber region began to be told by 
the lumber men in Chicago, and was heard 
by gentlemen who v/ere listening for just 
such tales and seeking a good place to cast 
a fly. The next June, a few of them came 
by lumber boats to Manistee and thence by 
rail to Fouch— the head of Lelaneau— where 
they staved at the lumber camps and fought 
bass and trout by day and mosquitos at 
night. Returning to Chicago they regaled 
their friends with stories of the delights of 
the sport of fishing in the newly discovered 
country and the abundance of that game of 
the waters,— not to mention mosquitos. 
Then more men came, and their arrival in 
ever-increasing numbers occasioned the 



Fifty-six 

building of a hotel at Fouch for their accom- 
modation. They explored the lake north- 
ward in their search for better fishing 
grounds and found the waters deeper and 
the fishing better the further northward 
they went. The most northern part — the 
largest of the three original lakes — was very 
deep and in addition to having better fishing 
grounds was surrounded by more pictur- 
esque scenery with abrupt shores and with- 
out bordering marshlands. In 1896 Profes- 
sor Bridgeman of the Lake Forest Univer- 
sity, in search of rest — and fish — camped 
near Porter's Landing on the northeast 
side of the upper lake, and later built a bun- 
galow about a mile further north on that 
shore to which he returned each succeeding 
summer. He was the morning star of the 
new day about to dawn on Leland. 
In the summer of 1900, Mr. Walter T. Best 
of Chicago, came to Fouch in quest of recre- 
ation and fishing bringing with him his 
young wife. Mr. Best became a national 
celebrity as an entertainer under the man- 
agement of the Lyceum Bureaus, and was 
known to the public as "Maro." They re- 
turned the next summer, made their head- 
quarters at Fouch, and were so delighted 
with the new scenery and refreshing cli- 
mate that they determined to establish a 
summer home in that region. Mr. Best 



Fifty-seven 

hired a small steamboat, the Tiger, Captain 
Harting, the only boat then on Lelaneau, 
and explored the shores of the lake for a 
home site. The shores of the northern part 
of the lake attracted their especial atten- 
tion, and the point of land standing out into 
the lake just east of the source of the river, 
known to the Indians as Misha-ma-coping, 
an old Indian camp ground — a beautiful 
open forest of pines, was chosen and pur- 
chased, upon which later they built their 
beautiful home well known as "Maro Nook," 
so named by Mrs. Best. They also placed 
upon Lelaneau the first gas launch which 
had ever glided over its limpid waters. That 
same summer, 1901, Mr. Luther Conant 
bought the cone-shaped hill just south of 
the dam, on the top of which later he built 
his summer home, and named the hill Round 
Top. That same year also, the Chandler 
and Dunshe families and Mrs. Cushman ar- 
rived and decided to build cottages on Le- 
laneau just north of Maro Nook. 

In 1900 Mrs. August Detzer and Mrs. Ma- 
huran, of Ft. Wayne, Indiana, after search- 
ing the map of Michigan to find a secluded 
spot for a summer outing and writing to the 
postmaster at Leland as to the possibility of 
securing lodgings, came to Traverse City, 
thence to Fouch by rail, thence by the Tiger 
to Leland and "put up at Old Man Brown^s," 



Fifty-eight 

the only lodgings obtainable in Leland. 
They started on their exploring expeditions 
and soon discovered the unbroken, roadless, 
pathless forests south of the village — The 
Indiana Woods. Their report of their dis- 
covery of the wild camping ground, where 
they had established their camp, and the 
fine fishing nearby, to H. W. Ninde of Ft. 
Wayne brought him at once to revel in his 
chief delight, fishing and camping. He im- 
mediately set about the purchase of that 
tract of land. The next winter, beside the 
prosaic hot-air register of a town house he 
told his brother-in-law, Joseph Littell of 
Indianapolis, and the next summer, he ar- 
rived and pitched his tent. Then he told 
Frank Blackledge and he put in an appear- 
ance. Then Mrs. Detzer told the McPhails, 
and Miss Colerick of Ft. Wayne, and they 
arrived. Then F. C. Ball of Muncie heard a 
rumor and came to see and stayed to camp; 
and he promptly told his brothers. Dr. Lu- 
cius Ball and E. B. Ball and they, with Ar- 
thur Brady and J. Otis Adams came to see 
what it was all about, and they all staked out 
claims. And the woods rang with the glad 
voices of children and the shores glowed 
with beach fires. Everyone was filled with 
delight and enthusiasm. Everybody told 
everybody else, and in this way Leland be- 
gan its new day as a summer resort. 



Fifty-nine 

This brief and imperfect sketch of the 
first settlement of Leland by resorters in 
the Indiana Woods is but typical of other 
settlements all around Leland. Each new- 
comer imparted his glad tidings of discov- 
ery of natural attractions, secluded from 
the busy social life and throng of summer 
resorts on the highways of travel, to his 
friends, and became the nucleus of a circle 
which grew up somewhere near Leland. 
There was no booming of Leland by hotels 
— there were none; nor by realestate agents 
— they have not yet discovered Leland; nor 
by railroad — they did not reach it; nor by 
steamship companies — there was no dock. 
The settlements upon the hillsides above Le- 
land and the cottages nestling among the 
trees all around the shores of Lelaneau 
could tell a similar story with only a change 
of names and dates, while the tall flagstaffs 
on Conant's Round Top and Maro's Point 
fling out a cheerful welcome by day to new- 
comers, and the lighthouse built by Horace 
C. Starr near his home on the bar at the 
source of the river is a beaconlight of wel- 
come to many a launch at night in search of 
port. 

Leland as it is today "just growed" like 
Topsy. It was not "brought up." The en- 
thusiastic attachment of those who have ex- 
perienced its delights in summer is the 



Sixty ^^_______ 

product of natural conditions. It is exhaled 
like a miasma and is contageous. It cannot 
be paralleled by artificial attractions. It 
holds us — we love it. And in just that in- 
definable bond we are linked to the past — 
to our predecessors there who have left 
the evidences of their devotion to it in the 
dead language of their mounds and graves. 
They too were men and loved it. 

Then, too, Antoine Manseau's kindly wel- 
come was repeated when we arrived at Le- 
land. The few citizens of the small village 
made us welcome and gave every possible 
assistance to the newcomer. Who can for- 
get the cheerful greetings and willing help 
of Jim Mason or Dad Price, Old Man Brown 
and Charlie Ribble, Junior and Senior, 
Charlie and Leo Miller, Jim Reynolds and 
John Robinson, Mr. Dalton and DeLong 
who built our chimneys, and Mr. Swartz 
and the Lederlys — all so well known to us; 
or the county officials, Mr. Hinshaw, Car- 
son Warner, Martin Brown, and the then 
young attorney L. C. Dayton and the editor 
of the Enterprise, W. C. Nelson,— all so 
ready and willing to aid us with informa- 
tion and advice when we were strangers 
there and all things were new. 



Sixty-one 



And so the summers there pass all too 
swiftly, until Aurora waves her most bril- 
liant signals in the northern night to pro- 
claim the coming of the cold north winds. 
Then with reluctant backward looks, we 
prepare for our migration southward— but 
with the firm resolve to come again. And 
when the sunsets on the Big Lake have 
swung southward until that drama, with 
its procenium arch of clouds tinted with gol- 
den glory and its curtains of indescribable 
beautv, is enacted on the deep green waters 
south'^of Great Manitou, and the colors of 
the sea and sky have been caught by the 
forest foliage in blended hues which chal- 
lenge and allure our artists. Otto Stark and 
J. Ottis Adams, and seem to mock their ef- 
forts to catch and transfer them to canvas 
—then it is that we stroll once more 
through the carpeted trails and feel most 
keenly the solemn quiet of the evening of 
the year— 

When the autumn winds are sighing 
Through the treetops gold and brown, 

And the summer flowers are dying 
While the leaves come sifting down. 



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